Replies

A reasonable reply. Thank you.

So here’s a question for you: If you were serving in the military and got orders into combat, would you go? Even if you had a wife and two kids and your death would most certainly be bad for your family?

Personally, I think the answer is pretty clear: You would do your duty. Your country would come before your family.

My quarrel with Sarah Palin is not that she did not run, but the REASON she did not run. She explicitly said her priorities are, and always have been: God, family, country. In that order. Sarah Palin’s stated reason for not running made it clear that her family comes before the country.

This country is in enormous peril. We need a leader who can put the country ahead of themselves, including their own family. A lot of shared sacrifice will be necessary to right this ship, if it is not already too late. A leader who is not willing to sacrifice personally cannot ask others to do so and expect them to follow.

That does not mean she is not a good and decent person. I think she is.

But right now we need someone with the leadership ability and all out personal commitment of a Winston Churchill. Winston Churchill offered his countrymen “blood, toil, tears and sweat”, and he brought them through one of Britain’s darkest hours.

Personally, I thought Sarah Palin was our best hope to fill that role. I was wrong.

Family comes before country absent threat of annihilation from a foreign enemy. To think that she is the only one capable is to be deluded. If she thought she was the only one capable she would be deluded. The fact that she has a clear grasp of what is really important proves she is not. True.

Quite a lot of us thought that.

Quite a lot of us were wrong.

So here’s a question for you: If you were serving in the military and got orders into combat, would you go? Even if you had a wife and two kids and your death would most certainly be bad for your family?

I respect your analogy, but I think it is misplaced. The obvious answer to your question is yes, of course. But unlike a politician who has not even entered the race, when I join the military I have already made the commitment to risk death for my country.

But even in the military I do not assume such a risk without the blessing of command authority. I do not jump in my own personal B-52 and go drop bombs on bad people just because I personally think I should. Am I right?

And who is Palin's Commander in Chief? God, I should hope. If she believes God told her no, by whatever means, she has no business getting in the cockpit of that "campaign plane" and doing her own thing. It is very difficult to take an action on principle you know will disappoint people who will not understand you. This is what she has done, out of respect for God, and love for her family, and it has only increased my respect for her.

However, I assume you are firm in your position, and I'm OK with that, so I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. The cards now on the table are the ones we've been dealt, so we have to make the best of it. Churchill, were he able to look over our shoulders just now, would doubtless advise us not to look back, but to look forward, and to keep marching relentlessly forward until we win.

So here’s a question for you: If you were serving in the military and got orders into combat, would you go? Even if you had a wife and two kids and your death would most certainly be bad for your family?

I respect your analogy, but I think it is misplaced. The obvious answer to your question is yes, of course. But unlike a politician who has not even entered the race, when I join the military I have already made the commitment to risk death for my country.

But even in the military I do not assume such a risk without the blessing of command authority. I do not jump in my own personal B-52 and go drop bombs on bad people just because I personally think I should. Am I right?

And who is Palin's Commander in Chief? God, I should hope. If she believes God told her no, by whatever means, she has no business getting in the cockpit of that "campaign plane" and doing her own thing. It is very difficult to take an action on principle you know will disappoint people who will not understand you. This is what she has done, out of respect for God, and love for her family, and it has only increased my respect for her.

However, I assume you are firm in your position, and I'm OK with that, so I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. The cards now on the table are the ones we've been dealt, so we have to make the best of it. Churchill, were he able to look over our shoulders just now, would doubtless advise us not to look back, but to look forward, and to keep marching relentlessly forward until we win.